TERROR CASE: Former Inland defendants now expected to testify for government

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Two Inland men who faced charges in a homegrown terrorism case are now expected to testify against the two remaining defendants on trial in Riverside Federal Court for conspiracies that include plotting to murder Americans overseas.

The disclosure came Tuesday as defense attorney Jeffrey A. Aaron complained during a morning court session to U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips that prosecutors waited until the last minute to give him a large file of recorded jailhouse conversations and emails generated by Arifeen David Gojali of Riverside and Miguel Santana of Upland.

The files were handed to him shortly before trial, Aaron told Phillips.

Aaron, a federal deputy public defender, said there was so much material to review he was concerned about when the government would call Gojali and Santana to testify during the estimated 20-day trial.

It was the first indication that Gojali and Santana appear to be cooperating with prosecutors. Like many documents in the nearly two-year old case, the governmentâ€™s witness list is sealed.

A defense paper filed in March said Gojali and Santana had pleaded guilty but gave no details. The U.S. Attorneyâ€™s office will say only that Gojali and Santana are not defendants in the current trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan J. De Witt told Phillips the government would be flexible about when Gojali and Santana might be called to the stand.

Santana and Gojali were originally charged with terrorism conspiracy shortly after the case broke in November 2012. Charges remain against Sohiel Omar Kabir of Pomona and Ralph Deleon of Ontario

The FBI said Kabir, Deleon and Santana had plotted since 2010 to join the Taliban and al-Qaida and â€śengage in violent jihadâ€ť against American military personnel and bases overseas. Gojali was recruited into the group in September 2012, the government said.

Deleon, Santana and Gojali were arrested as they were about to leave Southern California for Mexico and begin the first leg of their journey to join Kabir, who was already in Afghanistan. Kabir was arrested in Kabul.

But in the latest indictment, only Kabir and Deleon are charged.

Kabir and Deleon have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists; and to provide material to a foreign terrorist organization; conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping or maiming overseas; conspiracy to receive military-type training from al-Qaida; and conspiracy to murder â€śofficers and employeesâ€ť of the United States.

Both defendants were in court Tuesday, dressed in dark suits and ties. Kabirâ€™s beard was neatly trimmed.

Also Tuesday, Phillips said she was concerned that a protective order had been violated when an amount allegedly paid to secret FBI informant in the case had made its way into a news release from the Council on American-Islamic Relations-LA â€“ the local office of a national Islamic rights organization.

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